Nursery World - Miserly with holidays

Reading some of the reactions to the so-called 'increase' in holiday entitlement (News, 21 September), I started to imagine how the 'Act for the Better Regulation of Chimney Sweepers and their Apprentices' might have been received in 1788: 'While this law is fine in principle, it will reduce employment opportunities for the under-eights and come as a further blow to hard-pressed chimney sweeps, already struggling with increased regulation and ever narrower chimneys'. To say that the minimum 20-day holiday entitlement should be in addition to bank holidays is not an increase, it simply reflects what any reputable employer is providing already.

To say that the minimum 20-day holiday entitlement should be in addition to bank holidays is not an increase, it simply reflects what any reputable employer is providing already.

How many nurseries restrict their staff to 12 days' holiday a year in addition to bank holidays? What kind of morale or performance would you expect from people who are treated like that?

Isn't it about time we accepted that if a nursery can't exist without ripping off its staff with illegal pay and derisory holiday entitlements, its owners would be better off doing something else?

* Ross Midgley, director, Crocus Early Years Centre, Hempstead, Essex

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